First Look at AMC’s New Western Hell on Wheels

I love me my Westerns, but nowadays, you’ll have to go the more independent route to really get your daily dose, and usually the results aren’t so hot. I mean, they do their best with what they have, but the products are usually not what you would call A-list stuff. So imagine my surprise when I heard AMC was doing their own gritty Western called “Hell on Wheels”, and from the looks of it, it’s got some nice production values to boot. Check out the first trailer for “Hell on Wheels” below.

Hell on Wheels tells the epic story of post-Civil War America, focusing on a Confederate soldier (Anson Mount) who sets out to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who have killed his wife. His journey takes him west to Hell on Wheels, a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time. The series examines the railroad’s institutionalized greed and corruption, the immigrant experience, and the plight of the newly emancipated African-Americans during reconstruction. Over time, Hell on Wheels chronicles this potent turning point in our nation’s history, and how uncivilized the business of civilization can be.